Is There An Official 'Ten Commandments Of Trucking Safety'?
Topic 23577 | Page 2
1. G.O.A.L.
2. Don't text and drive. I am shocked at how often I see drivers in trucks and cars doing this barreling down the road at 70mph.
3. Don't tailgate, especially at highway speeds.
4. Don't pass someone, then merge back in front of them at distances less than 10 feet. The frequency of this utterly stupid and dangerous behavior amazes me, especially as shown by truck drivers!
5. Don't weave through highway traffic. Seen a dry van do this on I-71 North of Columbus, OH. I could have sworn I saw his trailer tandems lift off the road due to this behavior.
6. Don't speed in busy distribution or delivery sites, truck stops, etc. with high traffic.
7. If you are doing multiple drop and hooks, check each trailer well on your pre-trip, especially tires and the brake system. Doing so may slow you down, but I have blown an inner tire on a trailer and had a trailer brake air chamber fail (brand new replacement) due to rushing my pre-trip. Lesson learned.
8. It seems hard not to at times , but do not rush. I find when deadlines are tight, I tend to rush, which elevates stress, which in turn causes mistakes (see #7 above).
9. As a continuum of 8, do not rush when backing. From the looks of some guard rails and poles around dock sites I've been to, drivers have been playing bumper cars.
10. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT eat a Pilot sub sandwich. Get a bad one, and you will feel like you're gonna die.
Tandems:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Tandem:
Tandem Axles
A set of axles spaced close together, legally defined as more than 40 and less than 96 inches apart by the USDOT. Drivers tend to refer to the tandem axles on their trailer as just "tandems". You might hear a driver say, "I'm 400 pounds overweight on my tandems", referring to his trailer tandems, not his tractor tandems. Tractor tandems are generally just referred to as "drives" which is short for "drive axles".
Dry Van:
A trailer or truck that that requires no special attention, such as refrigeration, that hauls regular palletted, boxed, or floor-loaded freight. The most common type of trailer in trucking.Drop And Hook:
Drop and hook means the driver will drop one trailer and hook to another one.
In order to speed up the pickup and delivery process a driver may be instructed to drop their empty trailer and hook to one that is already loaded, or drop their loaded trailer and hook to one that is already empty. That way the driver will not have to wait for a trailer to be loaded or unloaded.
DWI:
Driving While Intoxicated
1: Don't hit anything. 2: Don't hit anything. 3: Don't hit anything. 4: Don't hit anything. 5: Don't hit anything. 6: Don't hit anything. 7: Don't hit anything. 8: Don't hit anything. 9: Don't hit anything. 10: Don't hit anything.
Soooo, you’re saying don’t hit anything?
In general, expect the unexpected.....Expect that car is going to pull out in front of you, expect that deer to run across the road, expect the light to turn red.
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1... drive your truck with your experience... as your experience increases so will your ability to handle any truck.
2...stay in the right lane and stay out of everyone's way.
3...if at anytime you don't feel safe, stop driving. find a place to park and get your stuff together.
4...keep an open mind... listen to some of these older drivers who have been driving for a number of years.... they did something right to stay in this business for so long.
5...stop assuming anything ... just stop.
6...learn from your mistakes..especially the ones that cost you money.
7...learn to deal with stress...you will get plenty of it in this job... and if you don't get a handle on it... it will be a short career.
8...focus on solutions... not problems.
9...if your boss asks you if you want to learn something new...and they are willing to train you so you can make more money.... don't miss out on these types of opportunities.
10...have fun...keep a positive attitude... enjoy the view....
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
Dm:
Dispatcher, Fleet Manager, Driver Manager
The primary person a driver communicates with at his/her company. A dispatcher can play many roles, depending on the company's structure. Dispatchers may assign freight, file requests for home time, relay messages between the driver and management, inform customer service of any delays, change appointment times, and report information to the load planners.